In its first year, Park County Open Lands has seen a lot of demand for conservation easements. Those are voluntary agreements where landowners can limit future development.
Park County Open Lands, which is a regional project of the Jackson Hole Land Trust, opened last February. The group's conservation values include wildlife habitat, agriculture, and open space.
In year one, the Park County Open Lands council greenlit 15 projects totaling more than 6,500 acres. One of those projects, a conservation easement for a ranch property, has closed, and the rest are in progress.
While they’ve seen a lot of demand, Regional Director Alex Few says conservation easements are still a new tool in Park County.
“One of the common misunderstandings is that the purchase of development rights cannot lead to the purchase of land. The choice to retain ownership or sell the land to another entity always lies with the private landowner even if they’ve entered into a conservation easement,” she said.
Of the 14 projects underway, Few says, all but two of those are working agricultural lands.
Few says agricultural lands in Park County in particular provide important habitat for migratory ungulates.
The group hopes to close more conservation easements this year. Statewide, about one percentof land in Wyoming is in a conservation easement.
